SERVING as deputy principal private secretary to the prime minister, Kunal Patel has emerged as an influential figure in 10 Downing Street. Patel joined Rishi Sunak’s team in August last year, taking up a crucial role – the principal private secretary acts the head of the prime minister’s office – and the move assumed significance as Patel served Sunak when he was chancellor. Patel had been private secretary to the chancellor between October 2019 to March 2022, when Sunak led the government’s financial response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic impact, including the Coronavirus Job Retention and Eat Out to Help Out schemes. The employee retention scheme, the first such scheme by a British government, cost an estimated £14 billion a month. The Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which encouraged people to visit restaurants by paying a slice of the bill, boosted a sector devastated by the pandemic, helping to increase diner numbers by more than a quarter year-on-year. Later, he was also involved in the government’s response to the cost-of-living crisis and the energy supply crisis, following the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Between March 2022 and October 2023, Patel served as the deputy director of the Fiscal Group at Treasury, which is responsible for ensuring that fiscal policy supports the government’s economic objectives and maintains sustainability of the public finances.
The group provides oversight of key financial assets and liabilities on the public sector balance sheet and ensures that the government’s financing needs are met. During this period, he has also served as one of two deputy directors for the Debt and Reserves Management team in the Treasury, which is the primary sponsor team and point of contact for the Debt Management Office, an executive agency of the Treasury responsible for debt and cash management for the UK government, lending to local authorities and managing certain public sector funds. The team was also responsible for managing the UK’s official reserves, coinage policy, and a range of Bank of England issues. In his role, he also had lead responsibility for advising on debt financing through the government-backed savings organisation NS&I, where he served as a board member. He has also been a member of the themes sub-committee of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee on the design of coins, medals, seals and decorations. Last year, he briefly served, before moving to the prime minister’s office, as the account ing officer for HM Treasury UK Sovereign Sukuk plc, a Treasury Group company that is sues and services Sukuk certificates, the shar ia-compliant bond-like financial instruments. Earlier, Patel served as head of EU strategy and coordination and senior policy advisor on sanctions and counter terrorist financing at Treasury. As Sunak faces an uphill battle in the gen eral election, scheduled for later this year, amid widespread economic woes, he would expect his trusted lieutenant to deliver for him, just as he did during the pandemic crisis.
